Wealth
Where to Invest 10 Lakh Rupees
Trade deals, tax cuts and economic reforms are shaking up Indian markets. Four financial experts weigh in on how to invest and earn better returns right now.
India has started 2026 with a jolt.
Within weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government struck a landmark trade deal with the US and unveiled a growth-focused federal budget — twin moves that could redirect capital flows, impact corporate earnings and test investor conviction in Asia’s third-largest economy.
The agreement with Washington capped months of uncertainty and acrimony between the world’s two largest democracies. While the fine print is still emerging, the broad outlines are significant. New Delhi agreed to dismantle a range of tariff and non-tariff barriers and to purchase $500 billion worth of American goods over the coming years. In return, tariffs on Indian exports to the US are set to fall sharply, to 18% from as high as 50%.
Dinesh Balachandran, head of investments at SBI Mutual Fund, and consulted for this first installment of Where to Invest 10 Lakh for 2026 is positive about the overall investment climate. But “uncertainty on whether this deal will stick,” he adds.
That hesitation is visible in the markets. While stocks and the rupee rallied after the trade deal they’ve pared those gains since, leaving Indian stocks down 2% year to date and trailing peers by more than 12%. Indian shares which have traditionally traded at a premium to their emerging market and Asian counterparts have seen that gap narrow due to the underperformance. The rupee has also struggled and is back to lagging most of its emerging Asian peers.
Modi’s twelfth federal budget laid out incentives to spur investment in infrastructure, defense, health care and the digital economy. The government also cut customs duties on personal goods, expanded the list of duty-free items and exempted various products and raw materials to support India’s manufacturing push. The overall impact was rather muted as the government maintained a tight grip over spending.
It’s in this shifting landscape that Bloomberg asked four financial experts across equities to bonds, including Balachandran, where Indians should invest 10 lakh rupees ($11,000) right now.
For those who like to invest using exchange-traded funds or mutual funds, Bloomberg Intelligence emerging-market strategy analyst Nitin Chanduka provides proxies for the experts’ ideas.
We also asked each expert for a less conventional take on how they’d spend 10 lakh rupees — the wildcard. Check out our first two editions of Where to Invest 10 Lakh Rupees, which ran in May and September last year.
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